“When I ski, it’s like a song. I can hear the rhythm in my head, and when I start to ski that rhythm and I start to really link my turns together, all of a sudden there’s so much flow and power that I just can’t help but feel amazing.”—Mikaela Shiffrin

I can imagine she heard the rhythm in her head during these runs...pure pendulum perfection...wow.
Just amazing to watch that level of flowing dynamic balance on the feet.
Poetry in stance angles.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6qhmasgDRI

Amazing. Thanks for that!

Also a shout out to Anna Marno for her 1st place Super G finish. We'll done!

“When I ski, it’s like a song. I can hear the rhythm in my head, and when I start to ski that rhythm and I start to really link my turns together, all of a sudden there’s so much flow and power that I just can’t help but feel amazing.”—Mikaela Shiffrin

I can imagine she heard the rhythm in her head during these runs...pure pendulum perfection...wow.
Just amazing to watch that level of flowing dynamic balance on the feet.
Poetry in stance angles.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6qhmasgDRI

The guy who does the announcing for the local races at my local hill, (Loup Loup), for the eight-year-olds announces better than that guy.

There are some athletes who are truly transcendent and I think she is one of them. We're talking about something on the level of Wayne Gretzky, Tiger Woods or Michael Phelps. It is astonishing when people like this can be that much better than other athletes that are themselves considered the elite athletes in the sport.

^^^ Especially as times progress. I read an article about how for example when an athlete pioneers something, they can be far ahead of the other competitors, but then of course, the competitors copy what they're doing. Now with video, etc. it's much easier to replicate the "new" process. She doesn't seem to be doing something that is easily copied. (There are lots of kids putting forth youtubes of Currie's dribbling warm-up for example.)

Exactly. Her feel for the snow is just so much better than everyone else. She can find speed (LOTS of it) where others can't.

I think this is often where that other worldly talent comes into play. Typically these types of athletes aren't necessarily bigger or stronger than other athletes, they just have off the charts proprioception. They have an innate "feel" for the snow, water, whatever. There was a kid I swam with last year (he's now at Stanford) who had this gift. When you watched him swim it looked like he was exerting about half the effort of everyone else in the pool.

Shiffrin

Everyone should download the US skiing app because it shows results, and usually it'll show the videos of US skiers.
Their Facebook feed is where they usually post the videos:
I just watched that again, and first off she is an unbelievably great skier, second, it's so cool to watch it without any announcer blabbing. You get to hear her breathing.

Shiffrin finished 5th, good second run but held back too much in the 1st. Only American to make the flip. 5 Italians in the top 10! Really tough conditions...foggy and 40 something degrees...the pitches were full of holes after not many skiers, and they couldn't see them in the bad light.